A book is an effort of mighty collaboration. It probably doesn’t seem that way while you’re alone in your chair with the door closed on your writing space, revising what’s written or facing the blank page with your visions. But it takes a village of helpers to make a book. As a self-publisher, you will learn to rely on many people.

In my acknowledgements for Viral Times, I listed 17 people who had a direct contribution to my debut novel. From early reading groups, where the content editing was free, down to the creative coaching, editing and proofreading, and finally to my most trusted reader Abby — my wife and the inspiration for the book — there were many people to rely upon.

Finally at the last, just before my proofreader Leslie Nail and my printer’s account manager Terry Sherrell helped make these words ready for press and ebook, my beloved bride Abby read through these people, the places and all the dreams that she has inspired and nurtured. Making a book can feel like making a movie once you write down all the names who have midwifed it. It’s been my joy to deliver this story at last—and also as the first book in my life as a novelist.

The first book in that life required an investment in paid editing, in due course. For me it was content editing and proofreading, but for some writers you might get content editing for free — if you have experienced writers or language arts teachers in your network. But nearly everyone needs to pay for copyediting. Altogether the editing is probably going to look like $3,000 in budget. It did for me, and I applied my 30 years of copyediting to my final draft before Leslie Nail took after it with “light copyediting” alongside her proofing. The book contains about eight errors anyway, but that’s out of 98,000 words. No typos — but I can live with that percentage.

Guy Kawasaki, one of the founding Apple Computer gurus and now an expert on SelfPub, wrote a superior book with Shawn Welch on the creative magic of making your own book. In APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur; How to Publish a Book, there’s good advice on editing: It’s a stupid mistake to skip paying for the work, done by a pro.

The third challenge is figuring out how much to pay a content editor. The going rate for content editors is $50 per hour. Figure that content editing will take 20-30 hours, so you’ll be spending $ 1,000-$1,500 for these services. The going rate for copyediting is $35 per hour, and copyeditors can work their magic at the rate of roughly 10 pages per hour (although this can vary depending on the complexity of the material), so you’ll pay approximately $ 1,000-$1,500 for a 300-page manuscript. This is one of the dumbest places to try to save money, because poor copy editing destroys the quality of your book.

In my previous installment on this topic, I broke the process of self publishing into a dozen steps. The first four are essential, but they’re not exclusive to self-publishing. You must have a book ready to publish if you’re going to become your own publisher. Practicing steps 1-4 delivers a book to your laptop. (And don’t worry, I’m coming back around to the articles about these first four creative steps.) But the writing starts to become a self-published book, what the industry calls a title, at Step 5: Working with an independent editor.

Editors are everywhere, from low-ball outlets like Skillpages to the spin-off businesses that Writer’s Digest promotes. You will be auditioning your choice of an editor to make your book better. You can start with story development, after you’ve set down your initial draft that you offer for an assessment. A good development editor — sometimes called a substantive editor — will give you notes on plot, structure, pacing, and especially character motives.

Creative Coaching Series

It’s very difficult to do this process for yourself. And while your workshopping group will give you a lot of help, they’re often not able to see the whole work and devote the time to it that any book needs. Unless you’re just extending the scope of characters who’ve already been welcomed by readers in a prior book you’ve published, development is key.

How do you hire an editor? For me, it was as simple as looking in the classified ad pages of The Writer magazine. There, Jill Dearman had a 4-line ad that promoted her services, available by the page. I contacted her by email, then summarized my book for her so she could see what kind of story she was working on. You want a good match of interest in your subject from the editor, along with a feeling of trust you’ll have in their competency and professionalism.

If this sounds like choosing a doctor, it certainly felt that way to me. You’re looking for references, as well as evidence that the editor’s work has led to published books. Membership in the Association of Independent Editors is one marker, but that’s a fee-only membership with no certification. It’s not as simple as looking for a stamp of approval.

But this is a coach you are hiring — and you will know when you have right mix of pressure and praising coming from this pro. More

Everyone dreams of being a published author. However, the definition of published has become broader. It’s within your grasp. Being published is a key goal in a writer’s life, a goal you can take control of — if you follow all of the steps in this series. Being published is a process that involves other artists, readers, professionals, and writers.Your greatest asset to complete that process is to take control of your desire. You’ve must harness desire to deliver the goods for your dream. In this series, I’ll break down each step, so you know how it works. Self-publishing your book follows a pattern classic to publishing.

You create a story, and improve it through revising.

You create one brief, one longer, and one comprehensive summary of the book. It’s your pitch, query, and calling card.

You workshop with other writers to gather responses to your story, using those responses to create your final draft.

You create your platform, before the book is complete, to build an audience

You hire an editor to assess your book, and to guide your revisions to the story.

You revise one last time, before submitting your book to copy-editing and proofreading tasks.

You design your printed book, both the inside pages as well as the covers.

You design and build files for ebooks: Amazon, as well as other outlets such as indie bookstore ebook shelves.

You schedule and specify for production and organize delivery of printed copies, as well as your ebooks.

You register your book with an ISBN number and a UPC code.

You distribute the books in stores of several kinds: book chains, independent stores, and online stores.

You tell the world about your book, encouraging reviews of all varieties. This final and essential step launches you as storyteller into the world, using your platform to introduce your written story, as well as attract an audience.

Steps 1-4 are the same for publishing as for self-publishing. On Step 5, things start to change. The editor in that step is one which you hire — in the same way that a publisher has hired its editor to help an author revise a book.

Like a good Tarentino movie, this series going to look at these out of order, starting with Step 5. We’ll double back to do Steps 1-4. That’s because your first four steps will be the same if you’re going to SelfPub, or Traditional Publish (TradPub). Then we’ll go on to Step 6.

You hire for steps 5-11, but you can do of those some parts yourself, depending on your skills. Step 12 is the same for either kind of publishing. Publicizing is the writer’s work to do for almost the entire life of the book. A publisher helps arrange initial interest, and might be able to schedule reviews. But tools like Amazon, GoodReads, even LibraryThing — these are yours to manage. More